Why do we blow out candles on birthday cakes? Use striped poles to symbolize a barber? Throw rice at weddings? Find out in CURIOUS CUSTOMS: The Stories Behind 296 Popular American Rituals.
Whether you want a new look at old habits or just love wacky facts and intriguing information, CURIOUS CUSTOMS is full of unusual, surprising bits of information that you'll love to learn and share.

Part manual, part manifesto, a humorous yet incisive guide to navigating subtle sexism at work--a pocketbook Lean In for the Buzzfeed generation that provides real-life career advice and humorous reinforcement for a new generation of professional women.It was a fight club--but without the fighting and without the men. Every month, the women would huddle in a friend's apartment to share sexist job frustrations and trade tips for how best to tackle them. Once upon a time, you might have called them a consciousness-raising group. But the problems of today's working world are more subtle, less pronounced, harder to identify--and, if Ellen Pao is any indication, harder to prove--than those of their foremothers. These women weren't just there to vent. They needed battle tactics. And so the fight club was born.Hard-hitting and entertaining, Feminist Fight Club blends personal stories with research, statistics, infographics, and no-bullsh*t expert advice. Bennett offers a new vocabulary for the sexist workplace archetypes women encounter everyday--such as the Manterrupter who talks over female colleagues in meetings or the Himitator who appropriates their ideas--and provides practical hacks for navigating other gender landmines in today's working world. With original illustrations, Feminist Mad Libs, a Negotiation Cheat Sheet, as well as fascinating historical research and a kit for "How to Start Your Own Club," Feminist Fight Club tackles both the external (sexist) and internal (self-sabotaging) behaviors that plague today's women--as well as the system that perpetuates them.

Diabetes is epidemic in the United States, but diagnosis doesn't mean a healthy and vibrant life is unattainable! In 52 Ways to Beat Diabetes, the editors of Bottom Line Inc. give you an entire year of tips, ideas, and actions on how you can beat diabetes now, from some of the top health experts in the world! Manage your blood sugar Fight back with natural treatments Discover simple, easy exercisesWhether you're hoping to live better with diabetes or facing the first shock of a diagnosis, Bottom Line is here to help you start your journey towards tackling diabetes.

Diabetes is epidemic in the United States, especially if you're over the age of 50. Even if you're already being diligent about your health, a diagnosis can feel like an overwhelming extra burden. The editors of Bottom Line Inc. present Aging Well with Diabetes, the first book for mature men and women looking to prevent and control diabetes with insight from over 500 of the world's top health experts! It provides easy access to the trusted collection of information that Bottom Line is known for, and offers breakthroughs on a vast array of topics, including: Foods that fight diabetes Weight loss and exercise essentials Heart health and blood pressure secrets Natural treatments and the right tests Whether you're hoping to get better control of your diabetes, or facing the first shock of a diagnosis, Bottom Line is here to help you confidentially tackle diabetes.

Founded in the Mahoning Valley during 1837, a tiny settlement of secular German immigrants grew into one of the most influential centers of Jewish life in the Midwest. Home to nationally renowned rabbis and Zionist firebrands alike, the community produced an astonishing array of leaders in an impressive range of fields throughout the twentieth century. This notable legacy ranges from the entertainment juggernaut of Warner Brothers to the Arby’s fast-food empire and the prominent Youngstown Sheet & Tube, among many others. Authors Thomas Welsh, Joshua Foster and Gordon F. Morgan trace the unique history of one of Ohio’s oldest Jewish communities from its humble beginnings into the challenging climate of the new millennium.

Evidence of bygone industrial prowess is scattered across Berkshire County in the far west of Massachusetts. Better known now for its four-season tourist attractions like beautiful scenery, cultural venues, and outdoor sports, the region was once home to an industrial base that helped a growing nation meet its needs in textiles, paper, glass, iron, and a variety of other products. The relicsâ€”imposing brick buildings just off the main roadsâ€”tell a story of enterprising young men and women harnessing the power of the areaâ€™s rushing streams to make products and profits. They were inventors and adopters of technology, and they gave back to their communities. Recurring waves of immigrants flowed into the county to take their places at the machinery and try to make a living for their families.

Let the Sparks FlyBliss Russo thought nothing exciting ever happened in her life. Until her building caught on fire and she had to be carried out of the flames in the arms of a gorgeous fireman. Sure, her apartment is now in shambles and she'll have to start her huge work project completely from scratch. But at least her love life is finally looking up...if only she can find her red-hot rescuer again.Dragon shapeshifter Drake Cameron is the last of his clan, and the loneliness is starting to claw at him. He's met only one woman who might be able to stand the shock of his true nature. After all, she barely batted an eyelash when her home burned down. And feeling her curves against him was just as hot as the inferno. Just when he thinks he'll never track her down, she walks into his firehouse—with no idea what she's about to get herself into.Flirting with Fangs Series Flirting Under a Full Moon (Book 1) How to Date a Dragon (Book 2)Kissing with Fangs (Book 3)Praise for Ashlyn Chase:"Original and full of laughs, steamy sex, and madcap mayhem."-Night Owl Romance Reviews"Hot sex scenes and a breezy tone with a nice, happily-ever-after ending makes...a fun read."-Booklist

Since May 21, 1932, tourists have been making the trip to the top of Lookout Mountain to stroll through what pioneers as far back as the 1820s called “the rock city.” This collection of huge boulders in a wild array of shapes and sizes was developed as an attraction by Garnet Carter, the inventor of modern miniature golf, and his wife, Frieda, a devotee of European fairy tales. Rock City Gardens quickly became one of the most famous tourist attractions in the Southeast, especially after Carter started a program of painting advertisements on barn roofs. During the post–World War II baby-boom era, Rock City became even more of a destination with the additions of Fairyland Caverns and Mother Goose Village.

Home to long-forgotten mining towns, defunct fisheries and neglected cabins, the turbulent headwaters of the Upper Rio Grande conceal a largely unknown history. Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys brought their legendary Texas swing to Crooked Creek Canyon’s S Lazy U barn dance, while a comedy of errors unfolded around the ranch’s secret still. Obstetrician Dr. MaryAnn Faunce, the daughter of an abolitionist and suffragette, made house calls as a real-life Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Rough-and-tumble miners drawn to Creede’s silver boom found accommodations ranging from the primitive to the opulent, though none as enduring as the Creede Hotel. Upper Rio Grande native Carol Ann Wetherill and author Sandra Wagner preserve and celebrate the pioneering spirit that defined the early days in this obscure corner of southern Colorado.

Roughly inspired by the human brain, deep neural networks trained with large amounts of data can solve complex tasks with unprecedented accuracy. This practical book provides an end-to-end guide to TensorFlow, the leading open source software library that helps you build and train neural networks for computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), speech recognition, and general predictive analytics.Authors Tom Hope, Yehezkel Resheff, and Itay Lieder provide a hands-on approach to TensorFlow fundamentals for a broad technical audience—from data scientists and engineers to students and researchers. You’ll begin by working through some basic examples in TensorFlow before diving deeper into topics such as neural network architectures, TensorBoard visualization, TensorFlow abstraction libraries, and multithreaded input pipelines. Once you finish this book, you’ll know how to build and deploy production-ready deep learning systems in TensorFlow.Get up and running with TensorFlow, rapidly and painlesslyLearn how to use TensorFlow to build deep learning models from the ground upTrain popular deep learning models for computer vision and NLPUse extensive abstraction libraries to make development easier and fasterLearn how to scale TensorFlow, and use clusters to distribute model trainingDeploy TensorFlow in a production setting

In a revelation of clarity, grace, memory, and unflinching insight, author Deborah Joy Corey examines the bonds of family, lovers, neighbors, and place that forge one’s sense of identity. With astonishing skill and delicacy, she weaves a transcendent story of love and loss, of spirit and spirituality, of loyalty and regret, and shows us how—despite a world fraught with despair and disillusion—wonder still prevails.

The first Fire Island Lighthouse was constructed in 1826 after numerous shipwrecks along the barrier island. A replacement tower built in 1858 incorporated innovations in lighthouse design such as the Fresnel lens. Vessels anchored offshore, known as lightships, augmented the lighthouse for many years. The Coast Guard shut down the site in 1973. Through the efforts of the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society and the National Park Service, the beautiful structure was meticulously restored and the tower relit in 1986. Along with a selection of wonderful color photographs depicting the grandeur of the lighthouse, author Bill Bleyer charts the history of Long Islandâ€™s cherished Fire Island Lighthouse.

Time Is Running Out In Two Realities. In one world, a lethal virus threatens to destroy all life as scientists and governments scramble to find an antidote. In the other, a forbidden love could forever destroy the ragtag resistance known as The Circle. Thomas can bridge both worlds, but he is quickly realizing that he may not be able to save either. In this mind-bending adventure, Thomas must find a way to rewrite history as he navigates a whirlwind of emotions and events surrounding a pending apocalypse. The fate of two worlds comes down to one man's choice--and it is a most unlikely choice indeed. Life. Death. Love. Nothing is as it seems. Yet all will forever be transformed by the decisions of one man in the final hours of the Great Pursuit.

In More Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality, readers are treated to more irreverent and humorous articles excerpted from the satirical Journal of Polymorphous Perversity. Editor Glenn C. Ellenbogen selects such gems as "A Profile of Politically Correct Interpersonal Relationships: The Case of Little Red Riding Hood" and "Sometimes No Heads are Better than One: Decapitated Programs for Mental Health Service Delivery." Beware, the symptoms of reading this volume often include acute bouts of laughter.

Let Them Thrive provides parents with a practical understanding of how education works--and how it can work better--for their children. Every learner is as unique as his or her fingerprints. But one-size-fits-all schooling doesn't account for those variations. In this highly readable book (with unique cartoon illustrations), bestselling author, educator, and parent Katie Novak introduces the research-based framework Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Parents learn the origins of UDL in the learning sciences and in practice. (UDL is prominent in the federal Every Student Succeeds Act). They also learn strategies, tips, and tools to support their children's learning in school and in life. Let Them Thrive is an important new contribution to the growing literature on UDL, the first such book directly aimed at parents.

I've always believed that New Concord and Muskingum College are the center of the universe, because if you get your start here, you can go anywhere. This quote from John Herschel Glenn Jr. is the perfect summation of a wonderfully Midwestern town that produced one of the great American citizens of all time. The Village of New Concord, founded in 1828, had humble enough beginnings. Over the course of the next century and a half, however, the growth of the entire country was played out on New Concord's stage as residents faced a series of revolutionary frontiers: Zane's Trace, the National Road, U.S. Route 40, Interstate 70, and finally, space. New Concord, like the rest of the country, struggled through two world wars, the Great Depression, and social turmoil. Unlike the rest of the country, it also produced a hero.

Includes 30 pages of bonus material!The complete, first-ever Golden Girls retrospective, packed with hundreds of exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes and never-before-revealed stories, more than two hundred color and black-and-white photos, commentary, and more.They were four women of a certain age, living together under one roof in Miami--smart and strong Dorothy, airhead Rose, man-hungry belle Blanche, and smart-mouthed matriarch Sophia. They were the Golden Girls, and for seven seasons, this hilarious quartet enchanted millions of viewers with their witty banter, verve, sass, and love, and reaffirmed the power of friendship and family.Over thirty years after it first aired, The Golden Girls has become a cult classic, thanks to fan fiction, arts and crafts, podcasts, hundreds of fan blogs and websites, and syndication. Now, Golden Girls Forever pays homage to this wildly popular, acclaimed, and award-winning sitcom. Drawing on interviews with the show's creators, actors, guest stars, producers, writers, and crew members, Jim Colucci paints a comprehensive portrait of the Girls both in front of the cameras and behind the scenes.Illustrated with hundreds of photos, including stills from the show and a treasure trove of never-before-seen and newly rediscovered photos, Golden Girls Forever includes:* Girls and Their Guests: short profiles of the show's most famous guest stars* Why I Love the Girls: Lance Bass, Laverne Cox, Ross Mathews, Perez Hilton, Zachary Quinto, Chris Colfer, Jason Collins, and many, many other celebrities share their love of the Girls* Exclusive interviews with ninety-four-year-old Betty White; the famously private Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan, before their deaths; and fan-favorite actors who appeared on the show* Harvey Fierstein's tribute to his close friend, Estelle GettyThe ebook also feautures 30 pages of material not inlcuded in the print edition, such as 17 Golden Episodes, a piece on Estelle Getty's make-up, the Rue LaRue Cafe, and additional fan art. Bursting with fun facts, anecdotes, reminiscences, and insights, Golden Girls Forever is the ultimate companion to the show for fans old and new.

[from the back cover]
"A Death at St. Anselm's rocks the wealthy Manhattan Episcopal church which has done so much to help the poor and homeless of the community. When the church's business manager is found murdered, suspicion naturally turns to the streetpeople who have been given shelter each night in the parish house. Incensed at this social bigotry, the Rev. Norbert Shearer is quick to defend the "disadvantaged" at the expense of his colleague, the Rev. Claire Aldington, a young widow and St. Anselm's therapist. Claire in turn fears she may be shielding her stepdaughter, Martha, a confused and anorexic teenager with problems of her own. But could Martha be guilty of such a crime?"
Read the rest of the books in the Claire Aldington series set in a large New York City church in the Bookshare Library including #2 Flight of the Archangel, #3 A Lover Scorned, #4 A Fatal Advent and #5 The Long Search.

Become a master at managing enterprise identity infrastructure by leveraging Active Directory
About This Book
• Manage your Active Directory services for Windows Server 2016 effectively
• Automate administrative tasks in Active Directory using PowerShell
• Manage your organization's network with ease
Who This Book Is For
If you are an Active Directory administrator, system administrator, or network professional who has basic knowledge of Active Directory and are looking to gain expertise in this topic, this is the book for you.
What You Will Learn
• Explore the new features in Active Directory Domain Service 2016
• Automate AD tasks with PowerShell
• Get to know the advanced functionalities of the schema
• Learn about Flexible Single Master Operation (FSMO) roles and their placement
• Install and migrate Active directory from older versions to Active Directory 2016
• Manage Active Directory objects using different tools and techniques
• Manage users, groups, and devices effectively
• Design your OU structure in the best way
• Audit and monitor Active Directory
• Integrate Azure with Active Directory for a hybrid setup
In Detail
Active Directory is a centralized and standardized system that automates networked management of user data, security, and distributed resources and enables interoperation with other directories. If you are aware of Active Directory basics and want to gain expertise in it, this book is perfect for you.
We will quickly go through the architecture and fundamentals of Active Directory and then dive deep into the core components, such as forests, domains, sites, trust relationships, OU, objects, attributes, DNS, and replication. We will then move on to AD schemas, global catalogs, LDAP, RODC, RMS, certificate authorities, group policies, and security best practices, which will help you gain a better understanding of objects and components and how they can be used effectively. We will also cover AD Domain Services and Federation Services for Windows Server 2016 and all their new features. Last but not least, you will learn how to manage your identity infrastructure for a hybrid-cloud setup. All this will help you design, plan, deploy, manage operations on, and troubleshoot your enterprise identity infrastructure in a secure, effective manner.
Furthermore, I will guide you through automating administrative tasks using PowerShell cmdlets. Toward the end of the book, we will cover best practices and troubleshooting techniques that can be used to improve security and performance in an identity infrastructure.
Style and approach
This step-by-step guide will help you master the core functionalities of Active Directory services using Microsoft Server 2016 and PowerShell, with real-world best practices at the end.

Jump into the world of Game AI development
About This Book
• Move beyond using libraries to create smart game AI, and create your own AI projects from scratch
• Implement the latest algorithms for AI development and in-game interaction
• Customize your existing game AI and make it better and more efficient to improve your overall game performance
Who This Book Is For
This book is for game developers with a basic knowledge of game development techniques and some basic programming techniques in C# or C++.
What You Will Learn
• Get to know the basics of how to create different AI for different type of games
• Know what to do when something interferes with the AI choices and how the AI should behave if that happens
• Plan the interaction between the AI character and the environment using Smart Zones or Triggering Events
• Use animations correctly, blending one animation into another and rather than stopping one animation and starting another
• Calculate the best options for the AI to move using Pruning Strategies, Wall Distances, Map Preprocess Implementation, and Forced Neighbours
• Create Theta algorithms to the AI to find short and realistic looking paths
• Add many characters into the same scene and make them behave like a realistic crowd
In Detail
The book starts with the basics examples of AI for different game genres and directly jumps into defining the probabilities and possibilities of the AI character to determine character movement. Next, you'll learn how AI characters should behave within the environment created.
Moving on, you'll explore how to work with animations. You'll also plan and create pruning strategies, and create Theta algorithms to find short and realistic looking game paths. Next, you'll learn how the AI should behave when there is a lot of characters in the same scene.
You'll explore which methods and algorithms, such as possibility maps, Forward Chaining Plan, Rete Algorithm, Pruning Strategies, Wall Distances, and Map Preprocess Implementation should be used on different occasions. You'll discover how to overcome some limitations, and how to deliver a better experience to the player. By the end of the book, you think differently about AI.
Style and approach
The book has a step-by-step tutorial style approach. The algorithms are explained by implementing them in #.

Over 85 recipes to help you complete real-world data science projects in R and Python
About This Book
• Tackle every step in the data science pipeline and use it to acquire, clean, analyze, and visualize your data
• Get beyond the theory and implement real-world projects in data science using R and Python
• Easy-to-follow recipes will help you understand and implement the numerical computing concepts
Who This Book Is For
If you are an aspiring data scientist who wants to learn data science and numerical programming concepts through hands-on, real-world project examples, this is the book for you. Whether you are brand new to data science or you are a seasoned expert, you will benefit from learning about the structure of real-world data science projects and the programming examples in R and Python.
What You Will Learn
• Learn and understand the installation procedure and environment required for R and Python on various platforms
• Prepare data for analysis by implement various data science concepts such as acquisition, cleaning and munging through R and Python
• Build a predictive model and an exploratory model
• Analyze the results of your model and create reports on the acquired data
• Build various tree-based methods and Build random forest
In Detail
As increasing amounts of data are generated each year, the need to analyze and create value out of it is more important than ever. Companies that know what to do with their data and how to do it well will have a competitive advantage over companies that don't. Because of this, there will be an increasing demand for people that possess both the analytical and technical abilities to extract valuable insights from data and create valuable solutions that put those insights to use.
Starting with the basics, this book covers how to set up your numerical programming environment, introduces you to the data science pipeline, and guides you through several data projects in a step-by-step format. By sequentially working through the steps in each chapter, you will quickly familiarize yourself with the process and learn how to apply it to a variety of situations with examples using the two most popular programming languages for data analysis—R and Python.
Style and approach
This step-by-step guide to data science is full of hands-on examples of real-world data science tasks. Each recipe focuses on a particular task involved in the data science pipeline, ranging from readying the dataset to analytics and visualization

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